2015 Gan Shmuel terrorist’s Israeli citizenship revoked

Due to a request filed by Israeli Internal Minister Aryeh Deri, an Israeli court revoked the citizenship of an Umm al-Fahm resident, who executed a terror attack in 2015 in which four people were injured. “An Israeli citizen should not be allowed to harm the lives and respect of other Israeli citizens and whoever decides to do so through acts of terrorism excludes himself from all of the country’s citizens.”

The Haifa District Court ruled in favor today (Sunday) of Israeli Interior Minister Aryeh Deri’s request and revoked the Israeli citizenship of Alaa bin Raed Zaid, the Umm al-Fahm resident who executed the car-ramming and stabbing attack in Gan Shmuel in October 2015. The request to revoke the terrorist’s citizenship was filed by Deri on the grounds that Zaid’s actions violated his loyalty to the State of Israel.

According to the indictment filed against him, the terrorist decided to carry out a terror attack against IDF soldiers and Jewish Israelis due to clashes surrounding the Temple Mount. On the day of the attack, Zaid had a knife in his possession, entered into his vehicle and drove to a bus station at Gan Shmuel Junction, where he noticed there were soldiers. He sped up, swerved the vehicle towards the soldiers and ran them over. Afterwards, the terrorist stepped out of the vehicle with a knife and stabbed an Israeli girl and another civilian waiting at the bus stop. Zaid was later convicted by the courts of four counts of attempted murder and was sentenced to 25 years in prison.

“After analyzing all parties’ arguments, I believe that cancelling the respondent’s citizenship is a proper and proportionate step,” the judge wrote regarding his decision to approve Deri’s request. “An Israeli citizen should not be allowed to harm the lives and respect of other Israeli citizens and whoever decides to do so through acts of terrorism excludes himself from all of the country’s citizens.”